Not a single plant grew on the empty wasteland. Cracked earth, dried riverbeds, and flowing molten lava lay everywhere. Poisonous smoke drifted through the air, painting the world in ever greater desolation.
A colossal monster stood at the center of the wasteland.
It was dozens of meters tall, its entire body covered in densely packed tentacles like the drooping branches of an ancient tree. Except those branches were alive, thrashing wildly in every direction, occasionally sweeping up rocks and clods of dirt from the wasteland and grinding them to pieces.
All except for one tentacle beneath its eye socket.
The tip of that tentacle held a tiny, illusory pale-green knife. It patiently carved away at a patch of iridescent color in the center of the monster's forehead. Dozens of black eyeballs and dozens of mouths of varying sizes crowded around the tentacle, chattering in a jumble of voices.
"This is the feeling... a rule capable of destroying everything!"
"Even contamination from the depths of the Starry Sky cannot resist it!"
"Oooh... it feels so good."
"It would be even more wonderful if this little knife were bigger."
"If it were any bigger, could your tiny claw even hold it?"
The iridescent colors were gradually shaved away by the green knife. Like colorful snowflakes, they turned to ash and vanished before reaching the ground.
All at once, the noisy discussion in the wasteland came to an abrupt halt.
The black eyeballs and sharp-toothed mouths all turned in the same direction. The tentacles that had been whipping through the air also froze as though struck by a binding spell.
After a long while, one of the mouths let out a deep sigh.
"What a pity." It chewed haphazardly on a bone it had pulled from somewhere, black saliva dripping from the corner